Blade Runner: The Peter Griffin Cut

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Sequels

In an interview in "Newsday", October 6, 1992, Ridley Scott is quoted as saying: "I'd really like to do that, I think 'Blade Runner' made some very interesting suggestions to the origins of Harrison Ford's character, addressing the idea of immortality. I think it would be a very intelligent sequel."

It must be an addiction. How else can you explain it? Maybe we want more of a good thing. It's like in the 1930's with the old roadside ads that had sequential messages that pulls you in.

As far back as we can see there have been sequels in our lives. Maybe it started with characters in an olde play. Once books were mass produced they too followed suit.

Then came movies. There are at least ten movies coming out this year alone that are sequels! And at least fifteen more movie sequels scheduled the year after. It's an ever-increasing epidemic!

So, naturally, Blade Runner enthusiasts want to know..."When is there going to be a Blade Runner sequel?"

Press Release from Alcon Entertainment

LOS ANGELES, CA, MARCH 3, 2011—Warner Bros-based financing and production company Alcon Entertainment (“The Blind Side,” “The Book of Eli”) co-founders and co-Chief Executive Officers Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove, in the most significant property acquisition negotiations in the Company’s 13-year history, are in final discussions to secure film, television and ancillary franchise rights to produce prequels and sequels to the iconic 1982 science-fiction thriller “Blade Runner.”

Alcon is negotiating to secure the rights from producer-director Bud Yorkin, who will serve as producer on “Blade Runner” along with Kosove and Johnson. Cynthia Sikes Yorkin will co-produce. Frank Giustra and Tim Gamble, CEO’s of Thunderbird Films, will serve as executive producers.

Alcon’s franchise rights would be all-inclusive, but exclude rights to remake the original. The Company, however, may produce projects based on situations introduced in the original film. The project would be distributed domestically by Warner Bros. International rights are yet to be determined.

Johnson and Kosove stated: “We are honored and excited to be in business with Bud Yorkin. This is a major acquisition for our company, and a personal favorite film for both of us. We recognize the responsibility we have to do justice to the memory of the original with any prequel or sequel we produce. We have long-term goals for the franchise, and are exploring multi-platform concepts, not just limiting ourselves to one medium only.”

Among its many distinctions, “Blade Runner” has been singled out as one of the greatest movies of all time by countless polls and media outlets, and overwhelmingly as the greatest science-fiction film of all time by a majority of genre publications.

Released by Warner Bros. almost 30 years ago, "Blade Runner" was adapted by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples from Philip K. Dick's novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and directed by Ridley Scott following his landmark “Alien.” The film was nominated for two Academy Awards (Best Visual Effects, and Best Art Direction).

“Blade Runner” was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1993 and is frequently taught in university courses. In 2007, it was named the 2nd most visually influential film of all time by the Visual Effects Society.

Alcon’s COO Scott Parish and head of business affairs David Fierson are negotiating on behalf of the Company.

Sidequel

Soldier (1998)

Script by David Peoples

Although it wasn't promoted as a sequel to Blade Runner, screenwriter David Webb Peoples calls it a "sidequel" that takes place in the same universe. Among some of the references to Blade Runner are shots taken of the junk on the planet where you can see a "Spinner", and one of the battles Kurt Russell's "Todd" character fought in (according to his battle records tatooed on his arm) was "The Battle of Tanhauser Gate," which Rutger Hauer's Batty had also fought in.

Trippy, futuristic film about a cadre of men born and bred to be shock troops in battle and then made obsolete by a new race of genetically engineered soldier. Kurt Russell is Sgt. Todd, one of the rejects left for dead on a junkyard planet. There, he slowly rediscovers his humanity while helping a community of human castaways battle the new breed of soldier threatening to wipe them out.

Three official and authorized Blade Runner novels have been written by Philip K. Dick's friend K.W. Jeter that continue the story of Rick Deckard and attempt to resolve many of the differences between Blade Runner and DADoES.

K.W. Jeter picks up the tale of Rick Deckard, the `blade runner' created by Phillip K. Dick and popularized by Ridley Scott's cult classic film. Consistent with the sordid vision of 21st century Los Angeles crafted by Dick and Scott, Jeter creates a stylish piece of thrilling, futuristic suspense that finds Deckard not only in the role of hunter, but also hunted. Again, Deckard is on the trail of an replicant, not knowing that it may be the most elusive and dangerous android of all.

Is it real or is it a replicant? Nothing is what it seems in Jeter's second sequel to Ridley Scott's classic SF film, Blade Runner, itself based on Philip K. Dick's classic novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Here, Jeter casts doubt on the identity of just about every character who appeared in either the film or the previous sequel, The Edge of Human (1995). The action opens in the orbital studio Outer Hollywood, where a video is being made of Rick Deckard's original pursuit of the rogue replicants, with Deckard acting as technical advisor. After both a replicant and Deckard's former partner are murdered, Deckard storms off the set to head back to Mars, where he lives in squalor with Sarah Tyrell, former heir to the defunct Tyrell company, the original creators of all replicants. Sarah, however, out of her mind with bitterness and boredom, plans to murder Deckard upon his return. Fortunately for Deckard, she is whisked back to Earth by two disciples of her dead uncle, the evil genius Eldon Tyrell. There, she is convinced to reenter the time-warping derelict starship on which she was born, in search of information about her past. If this sounds confusing, it is. Reality could not be trusted in either Scott's film or the Dick novel, and matters have gotten only more complex since Jeter took over the franchise. Readers unfamiliar with the story's previous incarnations will have a hard time figuring out what's going on here. Blade Runner aficionados, however, will enjoy the many twists and turns, suddenly revealed secrets and cameo appearances by characters who died in earlier installments of the series.

Fully authorised by the estate of Philip K. Dick and written by the author they felt best equipped to take forward the vision of one of the great names in SF, Blade Runner IV: Eye and Talon combines the dark imagery, paranoia, tension and pace of Dick's original novel and the cinematic genius of Ridley Scott in a novel that takes the Blade Runner series into a new millennium. Blade Runner has become one of the most recognisable and well loved brands in SF and K.W. Jeter has only added to its reputation and impact.

My comments:

Blade Runner 4 Eye and Talon...latest Blade Runner book by K.W. Jeter. I read the other ones by him as well. This book is better than them (Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human, and Blade Runner: Replicant Night).

I will not give away any major details/plot so...read on...

This book ties in with the other ones...but can be read without having read them. It's not as "Flashback-ed" as "Replicant Night".

And...the blade runner is a woman.

The start of the book does not appear very promising. But then it picks up. In my minds vision I pictured Angelina Jolie as the blade runner ("Iris"). Another character appears in the book named "Vogel"...and the actor I associated with that character was Jeff Goldblum.

The first half of the book was VERY interesting...some of the visions...scenes...and "devices" and what-not....GREAT material for a movie. I was excited...thinking, finally a new way to present another Blade Runner movie !

I simply could not put the book down!

However....the second half of the book...for me, was a big disappointment. My visions of Jolie and Goldblum were shattered. As Jeter had done with the other sequals, he redefined and twisted the Blade Runner movie as we know it to his liking. A shame. I had to force my way to read through a great portion of the last quarter.

Any one else have any opinions or feelings about this...or the other sequals by Jeter?

BLADE RUNNER DOWN

A script was written for a proposed sequel entitled Blade Runner Down, which would have been based on K. W. Jeter's first Blade Runner sequel novel.

March 8, 1998
"...submitted anonymously:
"Blade Runner 2.

"Just thought you'd like to know this project *does* exist.

"Because I have in my hands a copy of the screenplay titled BLADE RUNNER DOWN, by Stuart Hazeldine, based on the book by by K.W. Jeter.

"This script is dated 11/1/97 and appears to follow the plot from Jeter's book (REPLICANT NIGHT) -- it opens in a cabin in the woods with Deckard and Rachel. This movie would require either Harrison to come back, or the audience to swallow a new actor playing him, because it's all Deckard."

End of scoop. The cool part is (all thanks to a mystery friend) -- I just got to read this puppy.

Yeah, I sense the tension in the room. A whole bunch of Blade Runner fans just shifted uncomfortably in their chairs, riled at the thought of a sequel to BR. 'A sequel?? Who the hell in the right mind is gonna make a sequel to what many people consider the best serious SF film of the 80s? They gotta have rocks for--'

It's good. It's really, really good. I haven't read Jeter's book but I have friends who had. I asked them about some of the stuff in this script and they scratched their heads. 'Sure, some of it's the same, but not that part. Or that, or that.'

This moves. It's got legs to stand on and it'd be a kick-ass movie. But to pull it off the scooper's right -- you need Ford back as Deckard, but it works: he'd pull a 55 year old Deckard off. The movie opens ten years after the last scene in Blade Runner (no, not Ridley Scott's Director's Cut but the theatrical '82 version). Rachel's dying -- there's a hidden lifespan embedded in her genes. Deckard puts her into cryo and goes back to the only place she might be saved: the Tyrell Corporation and L.A. But the cops aren't forgetting about how Deckard blew out of town; before he knows it he's got the entire Blade Runner division hunting him like a replicant. The sixth replicant from BR isn't forgotten about, and neither is Tyrell's niece (the parts I was told are also in Jeter's book).

It wouldn't be the same as the original BR, but that's part of the script's charm: it's a different beast but still set within the same universe, like Alien is to Aliens. It's got some great chase sequences (the one at police HQ particularly) and some well-thoughtout characters. I'd pay $8 to see this.Patrick Sauriol, Creator, Chief Content Writer & Director Coming Attractions"

The author of the script had the following to say about it:

"WB don't have sequel rights, only a first-look at making a sequel. The rights reside with original producer Bud Yorkin. When my script went out 'the town' loved it and offered me loads of jobs. Harrison's manager liked it but wouldn't give it to him unless a studio offer was behind it, and the only people in town who didn't 'get' my script were the majority of execs at WB and Bud Yorkin himself. What can I say? Other studios would love a crack, but it's these guys who hold all the cards right now. Harrison hasn't read my script and may never read it."

- Stuart Hazeldine, author of the Blade Runner Down script. (18 March 1999).

About Blade Runner Down

Remember the sequence in "Blade Runner" when Deckard (Harrison Ford) gets orders from Captain Bryant (M. Emmett Walsh) to go out and hunt down the "replicants" who had recently arrived on our planet from Off-World' If you pay VERY close attention to that sequence, you'll catch an odd bit of discontinuity that serves as the central thrust of this screenplay's story.

In both edits of "Blade Runner", Bryant tells Deckard that SIX replicants came to Earth aboard the Off-World shuttle. He tells Deckard that one of the replicants was killed trying to gain access to the Tyrell Corporation, the place the replicants were created. This means FIVE of the replicants are left alive. But Bryant only sends Deckard out to kill FOUR replicants - even makes numeric reference to "four skin jobs walking the streets", and shows Deckard videos of them - Zorah, Roy Batty, Leon Kowalski, and Pris. All things being equal, this leaves ONE of the replicants both un-named and un-accounted for. This discrepency sets into motion the story of "Blade Runner Down". Actually, when all is said and done, the story is as much about this missing replicant as it is about Decakrd and Rachel.

"Blade Runner Down" opens in the snowy woods of Oregon. Deckard and Rachel have made a humble and meager life for themselves, having escaped the hellish cityscape that was 2019 Los Angeles. It's ten years later. They're older. They're free. She's still a replicant, and her time is up.

Deckard realizes he must go back into the city - back to the Tyrell Corporation - to find the secret to keeping her alive. He does so, and is instantly detected by the police force. Turns out he's a wanted man - he quit his job and took off with a "registered replicant". To Deckard's horror, Blade Runners (there are many Blade Runners in this script) are immediately dispatched to "air him out". But this can't slow him down - he's got to fight the good fight - got to save Rachel.

After breaching Tyrell Corporation security and explaining his mission to the Tyrell powers that be, he is offered a trade. The Tyrell Corporation has found a way to keep replicants alive past their in-bred deterioration (which Rachel is suffering from). But they will only keep Rachel alive if Deckard does something for them."

That missing replicant I mentioned above' He's very, very important to the Tyrell Corporation. For several reasons, not the least of which is he has already *outlived* his four year life span - without their help. The Tyrell folks need Deckard to bring him in, and if he does, they'll give Rachel the "kiss of life."

And so it begins.

In this script, we see much more of the world Ridely Scott envisioned in the original film. We see parts of the city we did not see the last time around: subways, extensive animal facilities, the space port where Off-World shuttles land and depart (the scene of an ultra-violent foot chase that could put the Deckard / Zorah street chase in the first film to shame).

But "Blade Runner Down" also takes us through some familiar places and environments. We see the singing propaganda blimps again - there are some terrorists who don't like them and pick on them constantly. The Tyrell Corporation is presented in much more vivid detail and scope (locker rooms, showers, landing pads). We re-visit Bryant's office - now occupied by Captain Holden. If you don't remember, Holden was the Blade Runner that got smoked at the beginning of the first film. There's a later reference in that film to him being "able to breathe okay as long as no-one unplugs him".

Holden is now back at a *desk job*, hauling around a Frankensteinian breather-unit thingie. While functional, he appears rather horrific. In a sequence in which Deckard confronts Holden about the cops that have been sent out to "retire" Deckard once and for all, the monstrous Holden tells Deckard he's illegal and now a wanted man because he ran off with Rachel the replicant.

"Give yourself up" insists Holden.

"I can't do that," replies Deckard.

"Leave LA. Don't come back" from Holden.

"I'm trying - you're not helping. Call off your dogs" from Deckard.

Holden answers "I can't do that."

"I am not a replicant" insists Deckard (a reference to the Blade Runners that have been sent out to terminate him).

Deckard moves closer to Holden. "No' What are you now, Holden' A he? An it?'"

"Blade Runner Down" is filled with little moments like this- where the tables are turned and one's not quite sure what to expect from any given character or circumstance. In fact, there's a surprise in the plot line that is heavily predicated on pulling the rug out from under us, and messing with our perceptions.

"Blade Runner Down" approaches the world of "Blade Runner" with great understanding and respect for the atmosphere, setting, and character-interaction which has already been established by Scott. But it also conjures a film that feels a bit different than the first installment.

Much of the script seems to take place in daylight, with occasional descriptions regarding how the BR environment would translate at a particular time of day (this is really rather intriguing and interesting). This story also feels more tense, more kinetic and intensified than the pacing of the first film. Descriptions of people being shot in the head, pools of blood, and replicant self-mutilation (sounds like a Joe Bob Briggs Drive In Totals list) bring to mind Verhoven efforts such as "RoboCop" and "Total Recall". Mad foot chases through jammed space-port concourses or busy police stations (through locker-rooms and showers and computer facilities) bring to mind the good old mad-dash steady cam days of Peter Hyams in "Outland" or "The Star Chamber".

So the question has to be asked: is it a GOOD SEQUEL to "Blade Runner"' Visually and stylistically, this story has the capacity to equal or transcend "Blade Runner". There's a wider variety of settings, circumstances, and ambiance with which a director could work to fashion the world of Los Angeles 2029.

Is it a good story, and how does it compare with the first one?

In many ways, it is more sweeping and daring than the first BR. It is grander in scale, and as indicated above, harder edged. But there is something un-focused about BRD. Not in a story sense, but in the reader's capacity to sort through driving motivations behind the screenplay's premise.

Perhaps this is because "Blade Runner Down" ends up being about ideas far greater than four disenfranchised replicants who are just "want to live". BRD is about making life forms to be our slaves, and a conspiracy to keep the extent of that effort from being known. It asks us to sympathize with the notion, but never really visualizes the idea for us - never gives us a Batty-like tragic figure on which we can pin our sympathies and sorrows. So we are once again left to imagine the situation against which the Off-World replicants are revolting, and left to imagine what their circumstances must have been like. We are asked to embrace esoteric conjurings instead of being give cold, hard fact.

We are asked to take at face value the notion that it is immoral and disgusting. Slavery IS, by its very nature, immoral and disgusting. But somehow, people murdering and hating in reaction to an experience that is conceptually intangible and abstract (to a vast majority of viewers) seems emotionally un-involving. Dramatically, we need to *see* what the replicants are so afraid of - we need to FEEL what they are feeling. Be it through a vision in their head or through powerful and vivid description (my preference). This would make it a lot easier for audiences to go along for the ride with these mis-understood replicants, and give "Blade Runner Down" the emotional resonance and powerful subtext it is struggling towards, but hasn't quite attained.

The first "Blade Runner" got away without taking us into these areas because it's story was more intimate and close-quartered. It was hard not to be affected when the one realized the film was about a man who was killing people who just wanted to stay alive. Not because they were criminals, not because they were evil incarnate - because they were made to serve us and made to die. But they're living and breathing and want more life and more experience - more time. Notions which move every one us, and the idea that Deckard's sole purpose in life was to snuff these people out is a coldly sobering, and in the end he is affected by this realization.

There few such transformations or lofty moments of power in "Blade Runner Down". Nothing to bring us into the SOUL of the story. There are no characters who move us the way Batty moved us. Nothing to quantify the life experiences of the replicants in BRD as being meaningful or exceptional. No one has "seen things you wouldn't believe". No one talks of moments that will be "lost in time like tears in rain". BRD needs to rise to that next level - and *then* it will become another classic-in-waiting.

Can it get there VERY EASILY? There are a lot of clever things going on in this script, a lot of delicate nuance and flavor that should translate magnificently to the big screen. As a whole, it is well written and sometimes even elegant. But it needs a little more heart to make it "timeless". There are some perfect places to install that hart - and then I think it will be a story completely worthy of its name.

Will "Blade Runner Down" ever hit film? There are possibilities. Is this the template with which the film makers efforts should be started? Yes, as long as the conditions above are satisfied. Will it be GOOD' on paper? It's a good "Blade Runner" story, I think, and can be a good "Blade Runner" movie as well - if not great.

The status of the project is - at this time - still very much unclear, but it looks as if SOMETHING is happening. Even under the best of circumstances, it will be a while before "Blade Runner Down" gets visualized - if it ever does. It's got a long road to travel before its ready to be threaded-up. While ever fiber of common sense within me says a sequel shouldn't be done to "Blade Runner". I wait with bated breath to see what Los Angeles 2029 will look like. To see how a softened Deckard deals with a harder world. To see if magic can happen twice.

Excert from "CreativeScreenwriting.com" by David Michael Wharton 05/20/04

"...I leave you one last point of view. In addition to having written Riverworld for the Sci Fi Channel, Stuart Hazeldine has one of the most interesting unproduced resumés in Hollywood (a Blade Runner sequel spec, which first brought him notice, and a high-fantasy version of Edgar Allan Poe's Masque of the Red Death, written with Alex Proyas). He told me his own process for breaking down the story:

"I've found a formula that works for me, whether it's a treatment or a screenplay or what-have-you. I call it 'Bones, Muscles, and Skin.' The bones of the script are literally just going through and writing all the slug lines. That normally takes about two hours, but you can only do that once you have some sort of treatment, even if it's illegible and in a foreign language. You have to know roughly what the structure is. The slug lines are the bones. What I call the muscles is going through the slug lines and writing every possible thing that could be said or done: action, description, or dialogue. Just writing in no particular order: you write down bits of dialogue, you write down anything that could potentially go into that scene. Once you've done that -- and that's a big process -- you go through and actually write the scenes. I find that as I struggle with that middle phase, I naturally give more order to it. I start to move scenes around or say, 'That works better with this.' So when you finally get to the last phase, skin, which is making everything pretty and writing it properly, there's a lot less work for you to do."

Was said to have been approached about writing a screenplay for Joe Madureira’s "Battle Chasers".

British sci-fi magazine SFX ( in issue #88 ) published a short interview with him.

Hazeldine co-wrote with Alex Proyas a script for Proyas' direction of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Deathtale"-a production in limbo at present.

Can't get enough of Blade Runner? The next best thing to watching the movie, or reading the book, is living it...virtually. There is Westwood's computer game that allows you to be a blade runner and "retire" illegal Replicants. There is Commodore 64's and Sinclair ZX Spectrum's game, and CPC's Blade Runner boardgame.

The First Real-Time 3D Adventure

This is a computer game that allows you to be a blade Runner and "retire" illegal Replicants.

You begin the game in the role of Ray McCoy, a rookie Blade Runner. You start with the investigation of an animal murder, and the game quickly introduces you to picking up clues and interviewing people. What you do from here on in basically depends on you!

Westwood Studios' Blade Runner

Blade Runner is a Westwood Studios PC game based on the 1982 movie of the same name. Released in 1997, the game was advertised as "the first real time adventure game". The story featured "Blade Runner" Ray McCoy searching for Replicants in Los Angeles in the year 2019.

Background and Plot-line

The game is set not long after the beginning of the movie (we can see this as Tyrell hasn't been killed yet, as well as many more minor plot details, such as Holden having been attacked and taken out of commission and, in an optional meeting with Tyrell, the mention of Tyrell being in a meeting with Deckard earlier that day), in November of 2019. Our protagonist, Ray McCoy, is a rookie Bladerunner under command of Guzza, a police officer of superior rank.

True to the film, the environment is similar, a dystopian, heavily polluted Los Angeles, brought to life by the fledgling 3D Real Time technology of the day. Also included are some landmarks from the movie, such as the dominating Tyrell pyramid structures. The designers invoke the mood of the film, re-creating a neon-lit Los Angeles constantly bombarded by rain. The perennial Blade Runner images, including the winking geisha billboard, and Spinners flying over the flaming smokestacks of the industrial outskirts, advertising blimp, and Chew's EyeWorks make you feel like a part of the Blade Runner world.

McCoy is faced with the task of tracking down a group of replicants and "retiring" (killing) them. The game is unique to the point and click genre in that it begins in a highly complicated fashion, and continues that way till the game's conclusions. You progress through a number of crime scenes, in which you must gather evidence, this is a matter of being highly observative of surroundings as well as using techniques typical of detectives.
Major Characters

Ray McCoy is the games rookie Blade Runner, and is the only character who the player can alter profoundly in the course of the game. Crystal Steele is a cop who ultimately sticks to the departments attitude towards Replicants.Gaff is hugely similar to the Gaff found in the film, he's a cop who he seemingly follows Roy around, while offering unsolicited advice. Lieutenant Guzza is the lazy superior to McCoy, and remains in his office for the majority of the game. Clovis, Sadik, Dektora, Luther & Lance (the twins), Gordo Frizz,Zuben, and Early Q are are other characters Ray will come in contact with. Tyrell is very similar to the Tyrell found in the movie. Lucy is a teenager who is unsure and concerned of whether she is a replicant or a human. J.F. Sebastian is also similar to his film counterpart, a reclusive loner residing in the Bradbury Building. Rachel, as Tyrell's secretary, will be around as well.

Minor Characters

Leon, Izo, Bullet Bob, Dino Klein, Mia and Murray, Howie Lee, and Crazy Legs Larry will be met throughout Ray's travels, as well as a cast full more. Names and places in the game are also listed in KippleZone's DADoES & Blade Runner Glossary.

Triva

Not only does this game have elements from the movie, it has elements from the book (DADoES) too. It manages to bring both worlds together uniquely introducing a partial scene from the book as well as terminology not used in the movie.
Also featured are the reprise of some of the original cast members from the movie, namely, Sean Young, Brion James, James Hong, Joe Turkel, and William Sanderson.

Frank Klepacki recreated the music of Vangelis, in addition to featuring his own new compositions, for this game.

There used to be a "Blade Runner" computer game for the Commodore 64 as well as the Sinclair ZX Spectrum home computer that was based on the music by Vangelis. This game produced by CRL was actually based on the movie but due to unknown reasons the film producers in the end decided to refuse to sell the rights. To be able to go ahead and distribute the game CRL changed their plan and credited the game to be a "Video game interpretation of the film score by Vangelis".

It ended up being sold as such in shops, with this credit, visibly printed on the packaging.

The CRL Group PLC released a computer game for Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, in 1985.

Gameplay:

Several replicants have managed to reach the Earth, which is forbidden under penalty of death. It is your duty as a Blade Runner to kill, no, 'retire' them. The gameplay is quite simple. You move across a map of Los Angeles searching for flashing dots that mark the position of a replicant. When you get to the dot, your spinner lands and a side scrolling view of a street is shown. After a short chase, the replicant is spotted and shot down without opposition, as life seems to be much easier for Blade Runners in computer games. I'll put it plainly, this game is just a curiosity for Blade Runner fans only. The Spectrum-like graphics are awful, and the gameplay is always the same. Only the menu music has some quality (guess why - it's a Vangelis theme).

SHARP AS A BLADE

We're on our way to the 21st century, so start thinking android quick! Unless you want to be left behind on this Earth while everybody else leaves for bigger and better planets, you'd better shape up your brain and get into action as a Blade Runner! If you've seen the fast-moving, futuristic film, then you'll know that Blade Runners are inter-planetary bounty- hunting police. It's their duty to capture and kill super-human Replicants, those lithe and lethal, living androids. This mission isn't execution, but 'retirement'. You'll have a flying car and an information screen to help you, but with the Replicants bent on revenge, your task is tough. You could make enough money to retire if you outwit them, but the fight will be tight. If you think you're sharp enough, then apply to the headquarters at CRL. They'll let you know how to get in on the action but you may have to wait. Tel. 01- 533 2918 and prepare for the future ...

Press any key to start. Then started the game - you've got a city map on the right and a sector map on the left. The yellow city map (right) is divided into the green sectors (left).

Press fire to start.

Look on the right map - the flashing dots are reps.

Use the up/down/left/right to get to one of the sectors occupied by the one of the reps - as you move around the yellow map, each sector is displayed in more detail with the green map. When you're in the same sector (left map) you'll see the rep appear as a red and yellow cross. Move you cursor over it and press fire. This will send you and your spinner to the reps location.

The view will change to a side-scrolling street. Once you've landed and gotten out of the car, you've got to catch up with the fleeing rep, who is off the screen to the right. You can see his dot on the scanner in the middle of the screen.

So, run to the right using your 'right' key, using up and down to dodge the people on the side-walk and the traffic on the road. If you manage to catch up with the rep, line up using up and down and shoot him to retire him. If the rep manages to out-run you and disappears off the scanner, your spinner will land and back up you go again to the main map.

Repeat ad-nauseum.

Dunno if you get the chance to VK em - I doubt it 'cos all I saw was a 'bounty' bonus.

Apparently, this is an item that was never put into full production and is thus exceptionally rare -- only 100 boards were made. It was printed by a small company in California (now defunct) and released to test markets in San Francisco and Los Angeles back in 1982-83. These are licensed products and bear the "Blade Runner Partnership" trademark.

As for the game itself, it's obviously a prototype. The box (a little smaller than average board game size) features a still of Deckard at the VK apparatus with a couple of Blade Runner logos and very vague description of the game. There's nothing on the bottom half. The box contains a board, game pieces, cards, and a notepad. The pieces are little skyscrapers, 4 colors, and a standard D6. The cards represent VK test results that you're supposed to write on the pad. According to the two-page photocopied instructions, the game seems to play something like a variation on that old game Scotland Yard. Basically you move your pieces around and when you land on a VK terminal, the other players give you a test and if the cards they draw add up to a certain number, then that player is a replicant and the others have to try to catch him. The game sort of plays on that uncertainty of who's a replicant and who isn't -- something that's not really expressed in the original theatrical release.